Highpoint I & II
Highpoint I and II in Highgate are among London’s most important modernist apartment buildings, designed by Berthold Lubetkin with engineering by Ove Arup. They were built in two phases in the 1930s, and both are now Grade I listed for their architectural significance.
Highpoint I was built from 1933 to 1935 for industrialist Sigmund Gestetner, originally intended to house his company staff, though that plan never fully materialized. It became famous as an early and highly accomplished example of International Style residential architecture in Britain, with Le Corbusier praising it as “an achievement of the first rank”.
Highpoint II followed from 1936 to 1938 on adjoining land, after local opposition forced a smaller and more luxurious second block. Lubetkin later lived in the penthouse of Highpoint II, which added to the building’s legend.
The pair helped establish modernism in Britain by proving that apartment living could be elegant, efficient, and prestigious rather than merely utilitarian. Highpoint also became culturally famous beyond architecture, including use as Emma Peel’s flat exterior in The Avengers.
 
interesting fact.
At Highpoint II, Lubetkin’s caryatids are a deliberate classical joke as much as a decoration: he borrows an ancient motif and places it in a modernist apartment block. The result is a building that feels both serious and slightly playful, which is one reason it stands out so much.